World;
- Connected set of objects and individuals.
- Habitable environment.
- Reasonably intelligible totality for external observers.
- Field of activity for its members.
Marie-Law Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media, Baltimore, Maryland: The John Hopkins University Press, 2001, page 91.
In the mid-twentieth century a series of writers were imagining vast imaginary worlds. Their worlds extended far past the scope of the stories that traversed them. They developed the histories of far away lands and they considered the geographies that extend into the horizon. It’s at this time that this practice of world-building is first being robustly theorized. Not long after methods of world-building are first described within literature, scenario planning emerged as a sister practice focused on producing speculations to guide businesses, institutions, and nation states. Scenario planning’s imagined worlds incorporate a heavy reliance on the quantitative analysis of trends and expert’s forecasts future developments. The worlds that scenario planers imagined have influenced major decisions by some of the worlds largest intuitions and governments. Fictional stories and worlds have provided vivid commentaries on our world at the same time they have provided inspiration and direction to our collective imagination. This thesis proposes methods of architectural design where a world-building imagination is translated into tangible propositions, informed by data, to address serious issues of today and tomorrow. The methods of design the thesis is developing meaningfully leverage the innovation and imagination of storytelling and world-building developed within literature, video-game development, and film for architecture and urbanism.
There are many difficult challenges that face us today; from the ecological, to the political, to the social. And, meaningfully addressing these issues will require a meaningful reimagining and subsequent redesigning of the world. There have been calls to address these issues through storytelling and world-building from philosophers, such as Bruno Latour, economists, like J.K. Gibson-Graham, and political theorists, notably Andrew Merrifield. There are also examples of architects and urbanists who have used stories and world-building in their work but limited sustained attention has been directed at the methods these external disciplines offer architecture and urbanism. By rigorously adapting stories and world-building into a design process, new design spaces are opened. What follow are a sampling of diagrams, with associated captions, describing various principles and processes of the proposed design method.
A diagram of scenario planning's core elements. A client, represented by the foregrounded figure, faces a field of options explored by the scenarios before overcoming a foreseen challenge, represented by the mountainous form, to arrive at their goal.
Storytelling provides a powerful tool of communication, invention, and understanding.
Scenario planning's process can be simplified to the following five steps:
- Define the scope of the speculation.
- Establish what the expectations and biases are.
- Define the trends that can be drawn upon and the uncertainties which must be accounted for within the speculation.
- Produce the speculations.
- Define actionable strategies and tactics informed by the scenarios and identified forecasts or trends.
Developing a story or imagined world benefits from being informed from arguably all aspects of the authors experience and expertise. As she develops and refines the particular story that navigates her world, the author completes details based on her expectations and desires. Involving a diverse group in the authorship in the speculation provides obvious benefits as it expands the pool being drawn upon accordingly.
The forecasts and analytics underpinning scenario-planning provide a deluge of data. Once culled together in a survey of literature and research of potential use for the speculation, these resources can serve as a reference to readily answer quanitative questions as they emerge. Treating the data in this foundational but not determining role allows for the story and world's development to remain informed but not constrained to the scope of existing quantitative research.
Author China Miéville reminds us, "World-building at its worst and most compulsive, inexorably means the banalizing of an imaginary totality." Their should be caution then to not indulge too much the nearly infinite potential breath and depth that can be developed with world-building. That being said, world-building's many layers from the universal to the personal and psychological is a powerful expanded domain to inform designs and as such should be utilized.
As the story begins (a) it will inevitably discover the errant alley, the new character, or other diverging path to follow (b). Exploring this new path in parallel to the original will likely result in yet more new discoveries and bifurcating explorations (c, d). These paths allow the author to quickly and easily develop richness simply by following and exploring the contexts of known elements in the story/world. When following this developmental strategy, it is prudent to be watchful for moments of convergence (e); moments where multiple characters are finding themselves at a particular site as these sites, objects, or characters with high occurrence are likely moments where design energy can be invested with higher than average impact.
When the author first begins the story (a), an initial direction is established in relationship to an initial definition of scope (c). This definition of scope may be as simple as an answer to the question: what is your story about? As the author beings developing the story inevitably there will be some degree of errant misfires or irrelevant noise generated (b) as the process gains its ground and begins to develop the inertia required to continue. The storyline splinters (d) to follow various characters, points in time, or locations (e). As the author continues to occupy the world being constructed and resolve details of the imagination, there will be moments where significant unknowns are discovered either because it is question that has not been resolved internal to the logic of the world or that requires additional external research (f). Paths will intersect identifying moments where additional design energy should be devoted (g). Ultimately, some paths of the story may continue roughly in parralel developing a consistent and rich image of the world (h,i) while yet others will veer into unexpected domains (j). Depending on the scope and desired outcomes these storylines exploring peripheral territory may be pruned or encouraged.